WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

LEADERSHIP TIPS“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)

Despite their best efforts, women still face obstacles pursuing a career and being a mother.

Unconscious to the many limitations placed on their choices, women still believe that they face a stark choice of either their careers or a happy home.

With much research and learning from her own journey, Muna Jawhary wrote “Women and False Choice: The Truth about Sexism” to dispel the many myths we still have about women and men in society. “When the whole feminine-masculine spectrum is embraced in both sexes, the equal sharing of work and care will happen naturally—which will dissolve sexism in the process,” Jawhary said.

The workplace still favors the masculine traits and skills that are associated with being male and devalues those feminine traits that are associated with being female. At the heart of the issue is that people hold different beliefs about the nature of women and men.

The most prevalent style of leadership amongst men is an autocratic or directive one of command and control. Women on the other hand tend to employ democratic leadership styles that allow subordinates to participate in decision making. Generally speaking, women leaders more than men leaders tend to be inclusive and aim for consensus-building.

Research also shows that women are more interpersonally oriented than men—more concerned with the welfare of the people they work with and with maintaining good professional relationships.

There is logic in the madness of the gender system: as female power rises and women become more and more agentic, many women across the world are now choosing to be childless.

You have to give up, to go up.

Aspiring women deserve a solid “heads-up.” Women who ascend the corporate ladder are expected to give up, to go up. This is a critical consideration for a woman with children. Whoever first noticed that we get what we wish for was right. We need to make sure that our career goals coincide with our personal goals.

Choosing to take the appropriate measures to advance our careers is a significant decision. Ultimately, the right decision for one woman may be entirely wrong for another. The choice belongs to each of us.

After spending time in the corporate world, many women choose to open their own businesses so they have more control over their time.

Successful corporate women manage the home front as well, if not better, than their careers.

For a growing number of women, their career is an important part of who they are. Happiness is a gift we give ourselves when we use our talents and enjoy what we are doing.

Every now and then a person runs across a great book that really helps improve the quality of life. This is such a book! Written by top coaches of executive women, Barb McEwen and John Agno, the goal ofWhen Doing It All Won’t Dois to develop solutions and strategies to help women’s lives be easier, richer, happier, and saner.

It’s based on the premise that doing it all won’t do. If you are a woman who is weary and stressed and taking on too much and struggling to juggle it all, this book is dedicated to helping you find the enjoyment and satisfaction you expected with your success.

Well-organized with real solutions and a helpful workbook section, this book focuses on developing your signature talents to do what you do best, developing a formula for success, and prioritizing your values and goals. A great read!

Companies are scrambling to ensure millions of younger managers from the so-called millennials generation—those born from roughly 1981 to 1997—are ready to step into leadership roles as Baby Boomers bow out of the workforce.

About 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day. “Many large, older companies are caught up in a tsunami of Baby Boomers retiring and are unaware of how much tribal knowledge they are taking with them,” says Dorothy Leonard, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School.

Until last year, boomers made up the largest portion of the U.S. population, and Generation X represented the biggest share of the workforce. Now millennials lead in both categories according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

GM uses educational training and mentorships to help bridge the generation gap. It wants its leaders to function more as coaches, the automaker has said. And Bank of America has a so-called onboarding program to help new executives adapt to the corporate culture and learn from senior executives.

The remaining 99% have three major problems. First, many rely too much on their software rather than build trust with the audience. Second, they do not prepare adequately to meet the demands of the attention spans of today’s audiences. Last, presenters do not take the time to understand what their audiences really want.

C. Inspire Confidence

The foundation of every presentation is its content. Your content is what your audience is going to latch on to and remember. It’s your big idea, your message, your approach.

I. Build Interest

What you say is important, but how you say it is more important. Once you understand how they like to hear information and what interests them, you can captivate them in a way that no one else can.

D. Allow Desire to surface.

When 'desire' surfaces, the people in the audience take the lead in the conversation while you provide the evidence necessary to justify the concept you are selling.

Leaders can be successfully developed once the individual realizes he or she has the potential within.

Some of the world’s most well-managed companies offer intensive leadership training with an emphasis on creating an awareness of leadership. The heart of this training is the belief that leadership comes in different colors, and that everyone possesses a set of strengths that can push the individual and the organization to substantive growth.

Author Shu Hattori writes in “The McKinsey Edge” that these approaches to leadership are among the many aspects of success in a competitive environment.

As you transcend or think about the next leadership horizon, you need to focus on what really matters for that position. When you are asked, “Tell me what really matters on this project in 30 seconds,” it’s imperative to synthesize and regularly play back in your head the problem, the current situation, and the proposed approach in terms of milestones, people and timeline.

When you focus your efforts on important cornerstone areas, other things start falling into place. Focusing on what really matters will help streamline your journey.

The authors show readers how to implement effective strategies by using proprietary tools along with interviews of top CEO’s who discuss their real-life experiences building strong, vibrant companies.

Sustainable transformation requires new mind-sets, not just new skills.

Transformation cannot be managed solely from the human resources function. While training can ensure that workers have the necessary skills, leaders need to encourage their people to develop mind-sets that enable them to embrace change.

Transforming culture is the real leadership work.

While some view culture as an intangible, it will determine the organization’s financial success. Sustainable transformation requires that all leaders possess a strong, vibrant and mature inner core. Senior executives who want to move the needle toward organizational transformation must have a well-defined inner core that allows them to take on the challenges inherent in any change program.

The key to unlocking your massive potential is making the decision to be vulnerable. Culture transforms when people transform. Results transform when behavior transforms. Behavior transforms when mind-sets transform.